Multiple personality case goes to the jury

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, November 18, 2003

The experts are through pouring cold water on the opposition’s case, and now it’s time for a jury to decide if a former Everett man has a mental disorder that will excuse kidnapping and indecent liberties.

Lawyers today were scheduled to give closing arguments in what has been a five-week trial to determine if William Bergen Greene, 49, is guilty as charged, or is beset with a number of personalities that took over his body in April 1994 and caused an attack on his female therapist.

The trial has elicited bizarre testimony about one person acting differently depending on what persona has taken over at a given time. It includes so-called conversations between the personalities, who all have different temperaments.

Some have supposedly gone to "the house," or "east of the mountains," part of the "internal landscape" described by experts. There was testimony about two personas playing a practical joke on Greene’s wife during sex when a teenage alter personality presented itself.

What the jury makes of all this is uncertain.

What they know is the expert psychologists and psychiatrists disagree on whether Greene has the disorder, and some of them are skeptical that the disorder even exists.

The jury’s decision is important for Greene, who twice before has been convicted of similar sexual attacks. He was sentenced to prison for life in 1995 for the attack on the therapist but won a new trial last year when he convinced a federal judge that he deserved the chance to present the multiple-personality defense.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Richard Thorpe will read the law to jurors, including what the state and defense must prove to reach different conclusions.

In a rare situation, the defense finds itself in the position of having to prove its contention that Greene is not guilty because he was insane during the attack. In most criminal cases, the burden of proof is on the state.

The defense also maintains that Greene’s capacity to make proper decisions in 1994 was affected by multiple personality disorder. The state has to show that he knew the attack was wrong and that he intended to commit the crimes.

Greene’s lawyers brought on two witnesses who not only believe in multiple personality disorder but also are convinced that Greene has it and was not responsible for the crimes.

The prosecution’s experts include a psychologist who once was convinced that Greene had the disorder but now is convinced he’s faking.

Prosecution witnesses have described Greene as an intelligent con man able to groom and manipulate people into believing he has the disorder. Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern maintains that his therapist at the Sex Offender Treatment Center in Monroe suggested the disorder, and Greene adopted it.

The therapist, a nurse, quit working for the state when Greene got out of prison. She continued treating him and became the victim of his attack on April 29, 1994.

The defense, on the other hand, says Greene was sexually and emotionally abused as a child. Defense lawyer Marybeth Dingledy argues that as a form of self-defense to trauma he developed personalities that could cope with the stress.

Those personalities took over during the assault, the defense contends.

The described characters are of various ages and sexes, and over the years supposedly some of them have combined or "fused."

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.